TVLine has confirmed that Mark Gibbon (The 100, Once Upon a Time) will appear as the infamous General Zod in at least one upcoming episode of Supergirl, which returns with new episodes on Monday. If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, Zod is a wicked warlord from the Supers’ home planet of Krypton.

The reason for Zod’s visit remains a mystery, but with the myriad conflicts currently unfolding on the show — including whatever Queen Rhea has up her royal sleeve — it really could be anything.

Interestingly enough, Gibbon already has quite a bit of experience with DC properties, having appeared in episodes of Smallville and Arrow, as well as on the big screen in Man of Steel. His casting on Supergirl was first reported by Bleeding Cool.

On the show, the Phantom Zone is an area of ACTUAL SPACE, located near Krypton in the Rao solar system, in which time doesn’t exist and from which very little can escape, so the only way this version of the character would’ve been trapped there is If he were an inmate of Fort Rozz.

I don’t see why people say it’s click bait. If it had been someone more prominent from Smallville, that would’ve been their headline. If it had been Tom Welling, it would’ve said “Supergirl casts Tom Welling as Kryptonian Supervillain Zod”. Whenever it says something like “…casts Smallville actor…” it’s always a random non-prominent guest actor.

Zod has military and political prestige in his own right, whereas Non had it more as Astra’s husband.
Let’s say Rhea needs a new ally, because running a space military is hard and she has to work on resurrecting Daxam at the same time. She brings in Zod, who has name and rep and was imprisoned for crimes against Krypton. Suddenly, her military poses a significant threat and one which has a personal connection to Kara instead of Mon-el. Zod may even be able to draw mercenaries and potential allies who weren’t enamoured with Daxam but will work for him.
Zod, also, has always been written as Non’s superior both in rank and ability (the movies even made Non mute). If they want to bring in someone (whom they haven’t used yet) who can match Kara without a ‘just destroy the mcguffin giving them powers’, they’re basically left with Zod, Doomsday, and Darkseid, the latter two who are probably tied up with the movies.